Englewood council awards contract for firehouse construction

I am happy to announce that the City Council has chosen a contractor for the construction of the new Jack Drakeford Firehouse.

Please see article below in the May 20, 2014 Record.

Regards,

Mayor Frank Huttle III

Englewood council awards contract for firehouse construction

MAY 20, 2014, 10:44 PM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 2014, 8:33 AM
BY KIM LUEDDEKE
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
ENGLEWOOD — Plans for the city’s new firehouse advanced Tuesday with the awarding of a $7.145 million contract for the project to a Hackensack firm.

The City Council on Tuesday chose Dobtol Construction to build the new firehouse, which will be nearly twice the size of the current building and located on South Van Brunt Street between the police station/municipal court building and the ambulance corps building. Construction is expected to begin this September and be completed by October 2015.

The current firehouse, located on Williams Street, is nine decades old and has had numerous issues in recent years, including ceiling leaks, broken urinals, cramped locker rooms, faulty wiring and pipes contaminated by asbestos. Conditions there have been repeatedly cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The new firehouse will be an L-shaped brick building with larger truck bays. Vehicles will be able to pass through the building from Jay Street onto South Van Brunt Street, meaning firefighters will no longer have to back trucks into the bays.

The new station also will include offices, multipurpose rooms and larger living quarters. There also will be a separate dormitory, shower and bathroom for any female firefighters hired.

The firehouse will be named for the late Jack Drakeford, a longtime councilman whose 50-year career in public service began as one of the city’s first black firefighters. Drakeford, who died in 2012 at age 75, was an activist and a leader in the city’s school desegregation battles in the 1960s. He was appointed to the City Council in 1973, a role he remained in for four years before becoming city clerk and then city manager. He served on the school board in the 1990s and returned to the City Council in 1999.

In January, the council authorized the appropriation of $7.65 million for the new firehouse, about $7.27 million of which will come from issuing bonds.

Dobtol Construction beat out 11 other bidders for the project, according to the resolution passed by the City Council on Tuesday. Dobtol is the same firm that was chosen by Paterson officials last year to build a new firehouse on McBride Avenue.

The Williams Street station, along with the former Lincoln School next door, eventually will be replaced with apartments. The City Council last month designated Englewood Builders Urban Renewal Co. LLC as the redeveloper of the two properties and entered into an agreement with the company approving its construction of 186 one- and two-bedroom apartment units. In exchange, the city will receive $7.9 million.

Email: lueddeke@northjersey.com

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